An RF fingerprint of the environment of a base station antenna will be regularly monitored, such as by regularly evaluating various RF metrics of uplink reflections of downlink transmission from the antenna. Through regular monitoring of the RF fingerprint, a baseline RF fingerprint could be established. And through continued monitoring of the RF fingerprint, an unexpected change in the RF fingerprint could then be detected, as an indication that the antenna's RF beam direction may have changed. In response to detecting the unexpected change in the antenna's RF fingerprint, the antenna's RF beam direction could then be newly determined, and the antenna's configuration record could be updated to indicate the newly determined RF beam direction.
Legal claims defining the scope of protection, as filed with the USPTO.
1. A method for updating a configuration record of an antenna of a base station to help facilitate mobile location determination, wherein the base station regularly provides downlink transmission via the antenna, and wherein the configuration record specifies a radio frequency (RF) beam direction of the antenna, the method comprising: regularly monitoring an RF fingerprint of an environment of the antenna, as one or more RF metrics of uplink reflections of the downlink transmission; detecting, based on the monitoring, an unexpected change of the RF fingerprint of the environment of the antenna; and responsive to the detecting, triggering (i) new determination of the RF beam direction of the antenna, to establish a newly determined RF beam direction of the antenna and (ii) updating of the configuration record to specify the newly determined RF beam direction of the antenna in place of the specified RF beam direction of the antenna, wherein the configuration record is useable to facilitate mobile location determination based on the specified RF beam direction of the antenna, and wherein the configuration record updated to specify the newly determined RF beam direction of the antenna is useable to facilitate improved mobile location determination.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein regularly monitoring the RF fingerprint of the environment of the antenna comprises regularly establishing the RF fingerprint as the one or more RF metrics of the uplink reflections, the one or more RF metrics comprising at least one metric selected from the group consisting of signal strength, delay, and phase.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the RF beam direction of the antenna comprises an azimuth of the antenna, and wherein newly determining the RF beam direction of the antenna comprises (i) determining locations at which user equipment devices served by the base station have reported strongest downlink signal strength from the base station and (ii) determining the azimuth of the antenna as an angle of a best-fit line representing the determined locations and originating at the antenna.
4. A method for updating a configuration record of an antenna of a base station, wherein the base station regularly provides downlink transmission via the antenna, and wherein the configuration record specifies a radio frequency (RF) beam direction of the antenna, the method comprising: establishing a baseline RF fingerprint of an environment of the antenna, wherein establishing the baseline RF fingerprint of the environment of the antenna includes (i) receiving, via the antenna, first uplink reflections of the downlink transmission and (ii) determining, as the baseline RF fingerprint, one or more RF metrics of the received first uplink reflections; subsequently establishing a current RF fingerprint of the environment of the antenna, wherein establishing the current RF fingerprint of the environment of the antenna includes (i) receiving, via the antenna, second uplink reflections of the downlink transmission and (ii) determining, as the current RF fingerprint, one or more RF metrics of the received second uplink reflections; based on comparison of the established current RF fingerprint with the established baseline RF fingerprint, detecting a threshold divergence of the established current RF fingerprint from the established baseline RF fingerprint; and responsive to the detecting of the threshold divergence, newly determining the RF beam direction of the antenna, and updating the configuration record to indicate the newly determined RF beam direction of the antenna in place of the specified RF beam direction of the antenna.
5. The method of claim 4 , wherein at least the establishing of the baseline RF fingerprint, the establishing of the current RF fingerprint, and the detecting of the threshold divergence are done by the base station.
6. The method of claim 4 , wherein the downlink transmission comprises a pilot signal from the base station.
7. The method of claim 4 , wherein the downlink transmission on at least a given frequency is discontinuous, wherein receiving the first uplink reflections and receiving the second uplink reflections each occur in a respective off-period of the downlink transmission.
8. The method of claim 4 , wherein the one or more RF metrics of the first uplink reflections comprise at least one metric selected from the group consisting of signal strength, delay, and phase, and wherein the one or more RF metrics of the second uplink reflections comprise at least one metric selected from the group consisting of signal strength, delay, and phase.
9. The method of claim 4 , wherein the baseline RF fingerprint is seasonal.
10. The method of claim 4 , wherein the RF beam direction of the antenna comprises at least one of an azimuth of the antenna or an elevation of the antenna.
11. The method of claim 4 , wherein the RF beam direction of the antenna comprises an azimuth of the antenna, and wherein newly determining the RF beam direction of the antenna comprises (i) determining locations at which user equipment devices served by the base station have reported strongest downlink signal strength from the base station and (ii) determining the azimuth of the antenna as an angle of a best-fit line representing the determined locations and originating at the antenna.
12. The method of claim 11 , wherein determining locations at which user equipment devices served by the base station have reported strongest downlink signal strength from the base station comprises the base station receiving, from the user equipment devices, downlink signal strength reports with corresponding geographic locations of the user equipment devices, and wherein determining the azimuth of the antenna comprises the base station determining the azimuth of the antenna.
13. The method of claim 4 , wherein the configuration record of the antenna is accessible by a network entity that is configured to use the RF beam direction of the antenna as a basis to determine location of a user equipment device served by the base station.
14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the network entity is the base station.
15. The method of claim 13 , wherein the network entity is a mobile location center.
16. A system for updating a configuration record of an antenna of a base station, wherein the base station regularly provides downlink transmission via the antenna, and wherein the configuration record specifies a radio frequency (RF) beam direction of the antenna, the system comprising: at least one processing unit; at least one non-transitory data storage; and program instructions stored in the at least one non-transitory data storage and executable by the at least one processing unit to carry out operations including: (a) establishing a baseline RF fingerprint of an environment of the antenna, wherein establishing the baseline RF fingerprint of the environment of the antenna includes (i) receiving, via the antenna, first uplink reflections of the downlink transmission and (ii) determining, as the baseline RF fingerprint, one or more RF metrics of the received first uplink reflections, (b) subsequently establishing a current RF fingerprint of the environment of the antenna, wherein establishing the current RF fingerprint of the environment of the antenna includes (i) receiving, via the antenna, second uplink reflections of the downlink transmission and (ii) determining, as the current RF fingerprint, one or more RF metrics of the received second uplink reflections, (c) based on comparison of the established current RF fingerprint with the established baseline RF fingerprint, detecting a threshold divergence of the established current RF fingerprint from the established baseline RF fingerprint, and (d) responsive to the detecting of the threshold divergence, newly determining the RF beam direction of the antenna, and updating the configuration record to indicate the newly measured RF beam direction of the antenna in place of the specified RF beam direction of the antenna.
17. The system of claim 16 , wherein the one or more RF metrics of the first uplink reflections comprise at least one metric selected from the group consisting of signal strength, delay, and phase, and wherein the one or more RF metrics of the second uplink reflections comprise at least one metric selected from the group consisting of signal strength, delay, and phase.
18. The system of claim 16 , wherein the configuration record is stored at a mobile location center, and wherein updating the configuration record to indicate the newly measured RF beam direction comprises transmitting from the base station to the mobile location center the newly measured RF beam direction of the antenna for updating of the configuration record at the mobile location center.
19. The system of claim 16 , wherein the RF beam direction of the antenna comprises an azimuth of the antenna, and wherein newly measuring the RF beam direction of the antenna comprises (i) determining locations at which user equipment devices served by the base station have reported strongest downlink signal strength from the base station and (ii) determining the azimuth of the antenna as an angle of a best-fit line representing the determined locations and originating at the antenna.
20. The system of claim 19 , wherein determining locations at which user equipment devices served by the base station have reported strongest downlink signal strength from the base station comprises receiving, from the user equipment devices, downlink signal strength reports with corresponding geographic locations of the user equipment devices.
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August 14, 2017
August 21, 2018
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